We bought our plane tickets on the afternoon of the 6th, Ivan arrived for planning on the 9th, the rest of the team on the 10th, and then we left the country first thing on the morning of the 12th. Needless to say, I was running around like crazy packing and dealing with other preparations from the moment of purchase until finally arriving here to Merida, Venezuela on the evening of the 13th.
Here is the short version (read-on for the more detailed version):
-We left from Seattle the morning of September 12th.
-Had some crazy adventures...
-Arrived safely in Merida, Venezuela around 9pm the night of the 13th.
The more detailed version:
The flight from Seattle to Atlanta went well. They were actually able to put all five of us together, so it was pretty enjoyable. We even landed about 20 minutes early, which gave us a bit of extra time to pick up our baggage and re-check ourselves in for our Atlanta to Caracas flight (flown by a non-partner airline). The second flight went well also. Several of my teammates made friends, with some Venezuelans, as well as with some missionaries. They all sat near eachother, but I sat several rows up next to a slightly creepy, small young man. He never actually talked to me, except to ask me if he could help put my bag in the overhead bin, but every time I even slightly turned my head in his direction he would look at me... a good look... weird!
We arrived safely in Caracas Wednesday night, though one bag short. After working out the details of the bag, which was located still in Atlanta, we headed off to our Hostel for the night. The original plan had been two separate rooms, but the hostel apparently changed our reservation. We saved about a third of the money, however the five of us ended up in one big dorm-style room (air-conditioned though, thankfully!). I slept like a rock... but apparently we made the discovery that at least 4 of the 5 of us talk in our sleep! Not only do we talk, but we talk to each other. Ahh... Team Bonding!
Back to the airport and off to Merida. My Spanish really came in handy at this point, changing some money, paying for our overweight baggage for the small plane that would carry us to our final destination, paying airport taxes, etc. We had our very first Venezuelan "Arepa" for lunch. Quite tasty! (I'll explain more about foods later...) We boarded our plane for Merida, and the adventure REALLY began. The short version is that the plane had some major "technical" difficulties as we were about to take off. This photo expresses Eben's and my reactions to said difficulties. If you would like the more detail and obviously more exciting version however, you'll have to ask...
So, we were escorted off of the plane and back into the airport where we waited two hours for a new plane to arrive. We finally made it into the air on the second plane. A short time later however, it was announced that the Merida airport had been closed due to rain and that we'd be landing at another small airport about an hour outside of Merida.
Thankfully, after all of our ordeal, the airline paid for taxis into Merida. We had to split up, so ended up going to the airport first, since we couldn't communicate between the taxis and there was a possibility that the students and our Venezuelan teammate might still be waiting to meet us there. Finally though, we gave the drivers our address and blindly headed toward our apartments. After arriving at several incorrect buildings, we finally arrived at building "C" and THANKFULLY Claudia was there and ready to let us in.
Wow... So, ALL the adventures! I promise, all of my posts will not be this long!
